Page 15 of The Revenge Plan

Iwas driving. My vision was hazy. Sitting on the passenger’s side was Liam. He was fiddling with the radio.

“Play something nice,” I said.

“You have shitty music,” he said.

His words were slurred. And so were mine. Then the dream changed. Now he was driving and I was in the passenger seat.

“Play something nice,” he said.

“I have shitty music, remember,” I said. He chuckled. Then a blur of light and a honking of car. “Watch out!” we both scream.

I woke up in cold sweat. This was the first time since I was a teenager, I had had this dream. This was all the memory I had of the night of. It was curious that I was having that dream again, now that Caiden was back in my life.

???

“I’m sorry.” I said. Caiden’s face was tense. The grip on the steering was so tight, his knuckles were white. He said nothing as he focused on the road. I turned away from him and stared listlessly out of the window. He had been quiet ever since the incident. If I had been avoiding him before, seeing him was made even harder now that he too was avoiding me. It was clear he wanted nothing to do with me. I hadn’t found an opportunity to apologize to him this morning when he had told me to, “Get ready. We’re going to brunch.” And that was it. I immediately put on my best clothes in record time and met him in the parking lot. Until now, there hadn’t been a single word uttered between us.

Maybe if I asked something neutral, he would respond. “Where are we going?”

Nothing. More silence.

We were driving towards the Hamptons I later recognized. Moments later we arrived at a beautiful blue and white beach house. Several cars were already parked outside. Dread filled me. He said brunch, so I should have expected it. But I didn’t think that it was going to be an entire party of people.

“I thought we were visiting someone. I didn’t think it was going to be a large group of someones.”

“It isn’t. Just a few of my friends.”

His friends. Of course that’s who we were meeting. He parked the car next to a sleek black Aston Martin. I got out and hurried after Caiden, who had hopped out as soon as he stopped. We strolled over to big double doors that had been left open and I trailed after him as he marched into the foyer as if it was his house. It looked empty at first glance, but I could hear sounds from beyond the living area where there were giant French doors that opened to a beautiful beach front. Outside, a party was in full force. About ten people dressed in garden party attire were gathered around a large picnic table that was full of food and no one was eating it. It looked like it had been set and they were settling down. Most of the women held a glass of mimosa in hand. They were talking and laughing and seemed like they were having a good time. Their easy-going nature didn’t ease my dread, though. It was the same group from the wedding, only now they were in their element. I looked to Caiden, but his attention was on a woman coming to greet us.

“Caiden,” she said, giving him air kisses, “What took you so long? We were about to start without you.”

“I was held up by something.”

She turned her attention to me. She was a beautiful curvy woman with light brown skin that glowed under the sunlight. Her yellow floor length sun-dress that flapped around her with the wind. She wasn’t part of the crowd I knew. She didn’t have the silver-spoon-shoved-in-the-mouth vibe that most of Caiden's friends had. That I probably have. “And is this the person who was holding you up?'' She gave me a naughty smile and went in for a hug.

“Mya,” Caiden said, “this is Hailey. Hailey. Mya.”

“I’m so sorry I couldn’t come to your wedding, but I really wanted to attend.” Mya looked like a pleasant person and her excuse sounded genuine.

“Mya Wytte is an interior designer. Works for Wytte-Blanc hotels,”

I didn’t miss the surname being the same as the name of the company she worked for. Or that it was also the same group of hotels owned by a friend of Caiden’s. “Nice to meet you, Mya.”

“I have heard so much about you. Finally, glad to put the name to the face.” I doubted she had never seen me before considering that I was once named, ‘the most photographed yet inconsequential person of the year’ by a certain rag magazine. At most she was being kind, which I liked.

As she spoke, a tall, handsome man strolled over to where we were and took Mya’s hand as he approached us. Him, I knew. Nathaniel Wytte. He had hung around the rest of Caiden’s group as well, “Where were you guys!” he had a glass in his hand, “We were all like sitting ducks waiting for you.”

“Hailey!” he said, giving me a big bear hug, “It’s been what? Since college we last met?” he said when I drew out.

“I think so, yes. How you’ve been.”

“Being bad people and not attending your wedding. That’s why we thought to throw this brunch for you. An awful excuse for a present, but I hope that you’ll like it.”

“Thank you.”

The jovial reception ended when we all went over to join the rest of the party. For me, at least. Everyone greeted Caiden with the same fervor, I got cold greetings. I soon realized that most of the party was pretty much coupled up. Apart from Mya and Nate, Caiden and I, there was also Sophie and her husband. Ax and two other women, Kailey, and someone else I couldn’t recognize, were the only ones single. I had been friends with Kailey in high school, but we had drifted when she took school seriously and became a powerful lawyer while I was getting sloshed in St. Tropez. She gave me a distant hello.

The other woman looked familiar, but I couldn’t place her. She had long, thick, beautiful blonde hair that made her look like she was a model of a hair commercial. Her face had hints of surgical enhancements, but I couldn’t tell exactly what about her had changed. Whoever her surgeon was, the doctor was a connoisseur.

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